Back from TA, lessons learned

[cangelmd]

Hi everyone, I wanted to post a bit about my first time transatlantic cruise. I loved Jim's live blog, but at times when I was reading it, I wondered if we were on the same trip at all!

First, I want to say we had a great cruise, and we want to do a TA again some day. Also, without exception. every person we spoke to on the ship who had been on other TAs said that this was not at all the norm, and was by far the worst TA they had ever been on .Not the roughest seas (although the first day and half was very rough with a lot of motion), but the longest time to go without being able to use the decks fully, because of the combo of moderate seas and heavy wind (25-40 knots, day after day). Also, what I am saying should not at all be taken as a criticism of the measures taken by the captain or Celebrity to keep people safe - safety is the utmost priority!

Silhouette was not designed for almost everyone to be either inside completely or in the Solarium for day after day. And, balcony furniture in the staterooms was not released until the 6th day of sailing when people began complaining.

So lessons learned:

1) Be prepared to not be outside for 6-8 days. There are many ways to do this and many things to do, but card playing groups and trivia groups formed fast.

2) As a result of number 1 - many venues are CROWDED. This is what Jim's blog does not reflect. For those of us not in suites, the bars and the OVC were extremely crowded, really all indoor seating was extremely crowded until the 2nd week when the balconies and decks began to open up. If you planned on sitting in the Library reading, you needed to stake out a spot by about 8 am. One of things I really like about Celebrity is that the ship almost never feels crowded to me - it can when much of the public space is closed or hard to use.

3) There may be a LOT of Elite and above passengers on board, enough to change the dynamic. Someone told us that 2/3rds of the passengers were Elite or higher, I'm not sure if that was true, but I think all those Elite changed things. Through the evenings, again, especially the first week during the crossing, the bars where Elite could get their free drinks were slammed. Other bars, like the World Bar, were deserted, so we spent a LOT of time at the World Bar. Of course, the Mast Bar and Sunset Bar were closed for half or more of the cruise. Specialty restaurants were empty most of the time, then overfilled on certain specific seatings - Murano being the only exception, although it was only half full the night we went. The upsell pressure for specialty restaurants, and to a lesser extent drink packages was the worst I have ever seen - it never stopped for the specialty restaurants.

4) Don't plan any shore excursions or port activities that you cannot financially or emotionally absorb the cost of. Every port on our trip was changed. At first that seems OK, and we did come to terms with it, but let it sink in for a moment. We met a person who had booked this trip in particular because the stop in Nassau coincided with a wedding he had been invited to in the Bahamas - that didn't happen. We booked a private tour in the Bahamas - that money is gone. More painful for us was the dinner reservation in NYC that we missed, we had called 2 months in advance at 10:00 on a Sunday morning, sitting in the church parking lot to get that reservation, could not be rescheduled. The ship shore excursions were rescheduled or credited, but some people had Broadway show tickets.

 

We did have a good time, despite everything I listed above. We might take another TA one day - the long 25 hour days were great. No jet lag - great. We would likely try the Southern route next time. after talking to a number of people. it sounds like the issues of being cooped up inside are much less likely to happen on that trip. We can handle some pretty rough seas with just a nap and some Bonine and SeaBands, but not being able to use a lot of the ship area, including your own balcony, was hard. The next time we need a prolonged at sea vacation, we might just go to the Caribbean and stay on the ship while all those other pesky travelers go to the beach!

[davekathy]

 Glad you had a good time and had a safe cruise. But I don't see what you experienced being any different on any other ship or cruise (itinerary) when mother nature takes command. Of course all the inside venues are going to be crowed. We don't pay to sit in our stateroom. It is a bummer but ship happens. The Captains Club HH for elite and above is only for two hours out of the entire evening. 5 to 7 PM whether in the Sky Lounge or other bars, except the World Class Bar. How was the food and entertainment? 

Edited November 21, 2018 by davekathy

[A Sixth?]

Joni and I were supposed to be on this cruise but had to cancel last minute. (Me and the Stones 🏥)

 

Was always worried about the time of year / itinerary but re-booked for 2019. 

 

Pays your money on a TA in hurricane season, takes your chances.  

 

[gordylad]

did it not occur to you that sailing this route weather would be rubbish.......always go south.

[cruisestitch]

A couple of years ago, I learned my lesson as well.   A similar itinerary was to have gone to New York City and Bermuda.  Northern route.  The seas were against us and it was the roughest crossing I've ever been on.  We diverted south to get away from the worst of the late-season hurricane but it was still awful.  We ended up in New York two days late -- the same problems with theater tickets, restaurant reservations, etc.  And we missed Bermuda altogether, to the dismay of the 13 people on board who lived in Bermuda and were using the ship to get from Europe to their homes.  They had to make the difficult decision to disembark in New York or Florida and make their way home by plane.  Some had brought a large number of suitcases with them and I imagine that it cost a fortune to get all that stuff to Bermuda.

 

There was a (small) silver lining.  On the original route, we would have had to go through US Customs and Immigration twice, and we were at least spared that.

 

Now I only take souther routes.  But some of the same things the OP found are relevant there.  The large number of Elites (over 1500) meant that the Elite breakfast was mobbed every day.  The interior spaces were very crowded.  While we had moderately rough seas a couple of times, the weather improved as the voyage continued and we headed for Florida.  So some hardy souls were out on deck each day.   That helped.

 

So, to the OP, you will find the large number of Elites on every crossing, you'll find the interior spaces crowded if the weather isn't good, but taking the southern route will help with that.

[CHEZMARYLOU]

Did you check with the excursion company in the Bahamas to see about a refund.  Many companies will refund if the ship does not dock when scheduled.

[yoj13]

2 hours ago, cangelmd said:

Hi everyone, I wanted to post a bit about my first time transatlantic cruise. I loved Jim's live blog, but at times when I was reading it, I wondered if we were on the same trip at all!

First, I want to say we had a great cruise, and we want to do a TA again some day. Also, without exception. every person we spoke to on the ship who had been on other TAs said that this was not at all the norm, and was by far the worst TA they had ever been on .Not the roughest seas (although the first day and half was very rough with a lot of motion), but the longest time to go without being able to use the decks fully, because of the combo of moderate seas and heavy wind (25-40 knots, day after day). Also, what I am saying should not at all be taken as a criticism of the measures taken by the captain or Celebrity to keep people safe - safety is the utmost priority!

Silhouette was not designed for almost everyone to be either inside completely or in the Solarium for day after day. And, balcony furniture in the staterooms was not released until the 6th day of sailing when people began complaining.

So lessons learned:

1) Be prepared to not be outside for 6-8 days. There are many ways to do this and many things to do, but card playing groups and trivia groups formed fast.

2) As a result of number 1 - many venues are CROWDED. This is what Jim's blog does not reflect. For those of us not in suites, the bars and the OVC were extremely crowded, really all indoor seating was extremely crowded until the 2nd week when the balconies and decks began to open up. If you planned on sitting in the Library reading, you needed to stake out a spot by about 8 am. One of things I really like about Celebrity is that the ship almost never feels crowded to me - it can when much of the public space is closed or hard to use.

3) There may be a LOT of Elite and above passengers on board, enough to change the dynamic. Someone told us that 2/3rds of the passengers were Elite or higher, I'm not sure if that was true, but I think all those Elite changed things. Through the evenings, again, especially the first week during the crossing, the bars where Elite could get their free drinks were slammed. Other bars, like the World Bar, were deserted, so we spent a LOT of time at the World Bar. Of course, the Mast Bar and Sunset Bar were closed for half or more of the cruise. Specialty restaurants were empty most of the time, then overfilled on certain specific seatings - Murano being the only exception, although it was only half full the night we went. The upsell pressure for specialty restaurants, and to a lesser extent drink packages was the worst I have ever seen - it never stopped for the specialty restaurants.

4) Don't plan any shore excursions or port activities that you cannot financially or emotionally absorb the cost of. Every port on our trip was changed. At first that seems OK, and we did come to terms with it, but let it sink in for a moment. We met a person who had booked this trip in particular because the stop in Nassau coincided with a wedding he had been invited to in the Bahamas - that didn't happen. We booked a private tour in the Bahamas - that money is gone. More painful for us was the dinner reservation in NYC that we missed, we had called 2 months in advance at 10:00 on a Sunday morning, sitting in the church parking lot to get that reservation, could not be rescheduled. The ship shore excursions were rescheduled or credited, but some people had Broadway show tickets.

 

We did have a good time, despite everything I listed above. We might take another TA one day - the long 25 hour days were great. No jet lag - great. We would likely try the Southern route next time. after talking to a number of people. it sounds like the issues of being cooped up inside are much less likely to happen on that trip. We can handle some pretty rough seas with just a nap and some Bonine and SeaBands, but not being able to use a lot of the ship area, including your own balcony, was hard. The next time we need a prolonged at sea vacation, we might just go to the Caribbean and stay on the ship while all those other pesky travelers go to the beach!

 

 

I agree with every word you have written, in fact I would go further and say it was a complete shambles.  Silhouette was ill prepared for this crossing.  They knew the weather was going to be appalling, the letter was already waiting for us in Southampton on embarkation day.  The Elite Breakfast as mentioned in a later post was horrendously organised.  I know there were passengers in the Tuscan  enjoying speciality coffees and champagne who were not Elite members as I was talking with them.  We only braved it twice and on neither occassion did we have to show our cards to the Captains Club host and  she didn't know us from Adam!!!!

 

We have no complaints about the food but generally the entertainment in the theatre can only be described as poor, but much like food, this is subjective, it just wasn't our cup of tea.

 

The port tax refund for the Bahamas was a joke.  There were 8 of us travelling.  Refunds were, $2.03, $8.95, $10.04 and zero for one of our group.  Reasons were plentiful, never the same and the guest service manager couldn't explain the Company Policy.

 

Come on Celebrity, if you are reading, I know you can do better than this.

[cangelmd]

1 hour ago, CHEZMARYLOU said:

Did you check with the excursion company in the Bahamas to see about a refund.  Many companies will refund if the ship does not dock when scheduled.

I am working on that.

 

I did not include this because I didn't want to seem to complain about things that were my fault and/or might have been out of Celebrity's control BUT the notification of the itinerary change came through within 24 hours of sailing, we were in London by that point sightseeing like crazy, so I was unable to even try to get in touch with the company in the Bahamas until Boston. We didn't see the email from Celebrity, so we didn't know until we were in the car headed down to Southampton.

 

Another lesson learned was to spring for at least some internet service on that long crossing - we mostly enjoyed being "unplugged" but under the circumstances, we needed to make some connections with vendors and with our family at least briefly.

 

I don't know why the diversion was announced so late prior to sailing, I have to attribute that to Mother Nature.

 

I also will not acknowledge snarky comments - we have sailed several times before, and I researched this trip extensively on CC and other sites. By and large we knew what we had signed up for, but I wanted to comment on things that we misjudged and could have approached differently.

 

I do "blame" Celebrity for the heavy pushing of restaurants, and to a lesser extent the pushing of drink packages. If a quota of usage of the specialty restaurants is figured into the bottom line, then they need to come up with a better strategy for making the restaurants attractive on a given trip - this was made worse because The Porch and The Lawn Club were practically closed for half of the trip. I'm afraid though, that the waitstaff is responsible for butts in seats at those restaurants, and that is why they were out hustling so hard.

 

I haven't even mentioned the fiasco of the Lawn Club because it only touched us peripherally, but people we met had a tough experience there, beginning with their reservation being made on the wrong night.

[cangelmd]

Food and entertainment - I thought the food was mostly good to excellent. I made a poor choice for dinner one night, but I give a pass on that. The temperature of the food in Blu might have been a little lower than what I was used to from the galley on other cruises, but nothing was stone cold or unacceptable. The Lawn Club was having a number of problems on the night we went, beginning with being understaffed for waitstaff, full house for the first time on the trip, the entire senior staff showed up including Captain, Cruise Director and Hotel Director, AND the assigned chef didn't seem to have worked this station before - the head chef had to come up from below to help cook (again especially since all the bigwigs were there). Service was terribly slow, even though the staff was working as fast as they could, and the meat was a little too salty, although well cooked.

Entertainment - we don't do the shows, the one we went to was OK, not awesome, rather typical for Celebrity. The live music was up and down. There was one singer who I didn't care for, and one band I didn't care for, the others were pretty good to quite good. More people dancing than on our last Caribbean cruise, and a larger variety of music which I liked. There was even a string duo and a well known jazz musician, which were pleasant changes (although one evening the strings played unusually doleful tunes!)

[Turtles06]

My wife and I were on this TA as well, and I'll offer our perspective on the weather and how it impacted the crossing. This was our 6th TA overall, and the second westbound from Southampton at this same time of year, with a planned north Atlantic crossing.  Although we had a couple of days of rough seas on that first one, it was a very pleasant crossing; you just never know what you will get, weather-wise, when you embark on a cruise.

 

On this TA, although we did not sail into any storms (thanks to the decision by Celebrity to head directly south rather than west so that we could avoid the huge low pressure system that was pounding the north Atlantic), it was probably the windiest crossing we've ever experienced, with winds so high day after day that the outer decks were often closed, as the OP said.   This definitely created a good deal of "cabin fever,"  especially as we cruise to connect with the sea.  After a couple of days, we simply turned our balcony furniture upright and used our balcony.  In fact, there were a couple of days during the crossing when it was so nice out that we actually sat out on our balcony for serious chunks of time.  As with any cruise, you take your chances on the weather, and probably have a greater chance for "better" weather on a southern crossing in the fall, but you just never know.

 

I totally disagree with the poster above who said that the Silhouette was "ill-prepared" for this crossing.  Celebrity made a wise decision to change our course, and Cruise Director Sue Denning did a great job filling up the additional sea day that was added because of the course change. She also had to scramble to rearrange shows so that people were not performing when it was not safe to do so.   I'm not sure what this poster was expecting the Silhouette to do -- stay on the originally planned course and sail into 50 foot seas?

 

OP: about your shore excursions, and this is not meant to be snarky at all: we just never book tours with private tour operators who will not give a full refund if the ship doesn't dock.  Most reputable operators dealing with cruise ship passengers have a policy of providing a refund in such circumstances.  I do hope you are successful in getting refunds.

 

[hcat]

Sorry you did not enjoy much about your cruise..but as you titled the thread,,,lessons learned, Thanks for sharing them.. despite differing  opinions on several points.....

 

TA s are known for a large number of Elite  and up guests....so are Presidents cruises...Everyone on  board has status and events can be swamped. On a TA on a  northern route, there are  many indoor activities,  so more crowded venues..A balcony might not be needed...maybe the Infinite Verandas on EDGE would be a good choice.

 

Water and weather on the northern route are known for being rough. Glad they re routed for safety,..

 

..If we do a TA, we would pick the QM2...a very sturdy smooth sailing ocean liner...With lots to do inside..from a great planetarium, library, pub,  cocktail lounges, spa, theater/ talent, nightclub,  ballroom, etc...

 

Happy Travels in the future!

Edited November 21, 2018 by hcat

[back-at-it]

I have been on one TA from Barcelona to Florida in the fall and it took the southern route.   It was amazing.  One day had rain, the rest were picture perfect. I have a video from our balcony on the third sea day and the ocean was dead calm.  

So I feel for you and suggest you try it again.  

I have one more booked for Nov 2019 and can not wait for it to come.

[Tedw]

I found this whole discussion very helpful.  We hope to take a TA cruise one day.

[jody75]

TA are the cheapest cruises for a good reason especially the western crossing. It surely wasn’t a surprise sailing the Atlantic in winter, doing a little research always pays dividends.  Last year Eclipse was diverted south, Beaches and Broadway Cruise it was called, it ended as a nightmare for most. 

[TeaBag]

We were on this cruise too and for the reasons given by several already, it is going down as one of our least favorite cruises.  Judith, you were brave to untie your balcony furniture.  We were afraid to do this.  We talked to one guy in Blu one night, who was wearing sunglasses.  Turns out, he was up on a deck and his glasses were blown off!  Fortunately he had prescription sunglasses.

 

We found the food in Blu not as good as usual but we did have some wonderful meals and the service was great.  We loved having the seapasses loaded with the 3 drinks each night, also available in the dining room.  We went to Lawn Club the first night and it was so windy and cold we were nearly blown out of the place.  However, the food was just as delectable as always with steaks that just melted in your mouth.

 

We found the music at the few shows we went to, much too loud.  We loved the violinist when she wasn't drowned out.  We went to see Pearl and lasted about 10 minutes because the music was so loud our ears were hurting.

 

Apparently there were 1700 Elites and above on board.  We never go the Captains Club breakfast, preferring Blu and then a Capuccino in Al Baccio.  We did notice they were overflowing into QSine.

 

We spent a lot of time in our cabin, reading and enjoying the rocking of the ship and the quietness.

 

I looked for Jim on board as I have followed other blogs of his, but even though we were in many of the places they went, we never crossed paths.  However, I do see us in one of his pictures!!  I think when people eat in different places each night, you don't seem to run into them much.  We met many really nice people and enjoyed chatting.

 

The immigration procedure was a disaster as far as we were concerned.  They paid no attention to the assigned numbers we had and shortly after ours was called, they invited all US citizens to proceed to the Sky lounge.  That resulted in bedlam, crowded halls and stairs, people yelling and a uniformed security person had to come to keep the crowd back.  There were no signs visible to direct other citizens.  We, as Canadians were directed to the ESTA visa line, once again confusing this issue.  Why do they not include us with the US people when none of us need the ESTA?  As Jim said, they barely looked at our passports when we finally reached the inspection area.

 

This was our 5th crossing.  The last one was identical with smooth seas and no missed ports, as were the other 3 on southerly routes.  We got no refund for the port taxes for Nassau.

 

I wish I had met more of the people on the roll call but we did not get our invitation to the Connections gathering and only found out about it at breakfast.  It was half over by the time I got there.

 

We now look forward to our next cruise. on Eclipse.

Edited November 21, 2018 by TeaBag

[Turtles06]

52 minutes ago, TeaBag said:

We were on this cruise too and for the reasons given by several already, it is going down as one of our least favorite cruises.  Judith, you were brave to untie your balcony furniture.  We were afraid to do this.  We talked to one guy in Blu one night, who was wearing sunglasses.  Turns out, he was up on a deck and his glasses were blown off!  Fortunately he had prescription sunglasses.

 

Our balcony furniture was not tied down, it was just turned over and stacked up near the sliding doors, probably because we were in a C2 cabin on the hump, with the deepest balcony, so stuff was pretty much out of the wind.  After a couple of days, we really could not see any reason not to have the furniture upright, and our cabin steward clearly had no problem with our turning it all upright.  

 

As for the wind up on deck, my wife had her sunglasses blown off one morning when she was out for her walk on the Deck 14 track.  Fortunately, she was able to run after them and grab them before they were gone forever.    

 

Sorry you had that bad experience with immigration in Boston. We were in group four (U.S. citizens) and it was all very orderly at that point.   It sounds like things went downhill after that.  Argh.

Edited November 21, 2018 by Turtles06

[Turtles06]

1 hour ago, jody75 said:

TA are the cheapest cruises for a good reason especially the western crossing. It surely wasn’t a surprise sailing the Atlantic in winter, doing a little research always pays dividends.  Last year Eclipse was diverted south, Beaches and Broadway Cruise it was called, it ended as a nightmare for most. 

I think you are being unfairly critical of the OP.   First of all, this cruise wasn't in the winter.  Second, any cruise can be impacted by weather, or not.  As I said in my earlier post, I did the same route at the same time a few years ago, and there were no problems. 

[Palms2Pines2Sea]

It would require ALL my fingers and ALL my toes to count the number of missed port calls, missed excursions, and missed plans during my history of ocean crossings. The only thing I might add to what has already been said is that we passengers have very little idea of the nightmare that the ships, the officers, the crew, and the on-shore support personnel are dealing with when deviations are (inevitably) made.

I am thrilled when an ocean crossing goes as planned, but I have every expectation that it won't!

😎

[Host Jazzbeau]

On our Viking 'British Isles Explorer' cruise this summer we experienced weather too cold for people to use the pool deck and were very pleasantly surprised that even with that, the ship never felt crowded.  There is also no such thing as 'elites' on Viking Ocean.  This might be an alternative to consider.

[excitedofharpenden]

To the OP, disregard any know all comments. It was your first TA and it can be dodgy at any time of year on the more northerly North Atlantic route. You offer some good information. My first ever transatlantic was from Dover to New York in early September. It was so rough on Constellation that by the time we got to our first stop in St John's the sea had  blasted many letters off the name of the ship. 

 

I totally agree about the S-Class ships feeling crowded if the weather is poor. I did a Norwegian Fjords cruise on Eclipse and it was chilly outside so very crowded inside. It was also impossible to get away from muzak or music around the ship. 

 

Give another ta a go, but choose more southerly. The ones that head towards Tenerife give you more chance, but even then late in the season it can catch you out. 

 

Phil

[Covepointcruiser]

We were on this crossing and found it quite typical.   We have had ports missed on both the northern and southern routes.   In fact, on one southern crossing, we were about 6 hours late getting into Florida.   It was a nightmare for those who did not book flights through Celebrity.    You often have weather issues on crossings and even on regular cruises.   We never book anything for a port until we are actually there.    The number of Elites on crossings is very high and we even had 22 Zenith members on this crossing.  The entertainment was better than we have experienced before on Celebrity.   Also enjoyed Dr. Jim Kennedy from NASA, he was an excellent speaker.

[ECCruise]

6 hours ago, gordylad said:

did it not occur to you that sailing this route weather would be rubbish.......always go south.

You mean like the south itinerary that we just got off yesterday that had bad weather virtually from start to finish?  Including a diversion?  That south route?

 

23 crossings and some good and some bad, both north and south.  Blanket statements are not effective.

Edited November 21, 2018 by ECCruise

[BEAV]

1 hour ago, ECCruise said:

You mean like the south itinerary that we just got off yesterday that had bad weather virtually from start to finish?  Including a diversion?  That south route?

 

23 crossings and some good and some bad, both north and south.  Blanket statements are not effective.

Just curious to know what TA you disembarked yesterday that had foul weather all the way across?  The Crystal Serenity finished its TA (Lisbon to Ft Lauderdale) today (one day after yours) and a number of posters on that crossing report glorious warm weather and calm seas. 

[hvsteve1]

I agree with HCAT on preferring the QM2. She is an Ocean Liner, unlike the others that are cruise ships. QM2 handles the rough seas much better than others.  She also has massive interior spaces with the expectation most guests will spend most of the cruise inside.  Decks were seldom usable due to cold and windy (and sometimes rainy) weather.  And this was in June.  The old photos of passengers lying on loungers with heavy clothing and covered in blankets was exactly the kind of things people did on this cruise.  We also cruised on Queen Victoria in Europe and, though also Cunard, it was a different experience as she is a cruise ship with much tighter inside spaces.  Though "X" crossings are a bargain price, my understanding is you get no perks which, after you add paying for all those things, makes it not that great a deal.  Some of the luxury lines use the days at sea to make it a theme cruise, as does Cunard on some crossings.

[cangelmd]

6 hours ago, Turtles06 said:

 

Our balcony furniture was not tied down, it was just turned over and stacked up near the sliding doors, probably because we were in a C2 cabin on the hump, with the deepest balcony, so stuff was pretty much out of the wind.  After a couple of days, we really could not see any reason not to have the furniture upright, and our cabin steward clearly had no problem with our turning it all upright.  

 

As for the wind up on deck, my wife had her sunglasses blown off one morning when she was out for her walk on the Deck 14 track.  Fortunately, she was able to run after them and grab them before they were gone forever.    

 

Sorry you had that bad experience with immigration in Boston. We were in group four (U.S. citizens) and it was all very orderly at that point.   It sounds like things went downhill after that.  Argh.

We did ask our cabin steward about the balcony chairs on the day before they got turned over, maybe Thursday, he said oh no, we haven’t gotten permission to release it. At that point, we didn’t want to get him into trouble and the next day it was set up.

Interestingly, furniture remained out all the second week, including days that were quite similar to the last 2-3 days of the crossing!

 

As I originally said, much of what happened was what we expected, but the impact was not always what we expected. I brought some heavy clothes anticipating long cold walks,  it didn’t use them because wind trumped the temperature. I live in hurricane country, hurricanes don’t normally last 5-6 days! Then I ran low on my lighter clothes as it was hot inside the ship.

 

As to immigration in Boston, the non-US citizen line was brutal, was anyone on a Celeb excursion, did the non-US hold up excursions? I think the shouting was congestion at the very end, people trying to use the elevator instead of walking outside, it was cold and breezy, and many people had come up from their cabins not dressed to go outside.

 

i may have gotten an email about the refund, I saw something buried in spam. We didn’t get home until midnight Sunday night and I had to work Monday with a killer head cold